Condé Nast Stops Paying Interns

Magazine conglomerate Condé Nast, which was slapped with a lawsuit in June for paying interns less than a dollar per hour, has decided to stop paying interns altogether. Zero. Several recent Conde interns told the Who Pays Interns Tumblr, which documents the internship wages at media companies, that their employer has stopped dispensing any kind of stipend (Previously, interns received $550 per semester.)

A few months ago, we reported that Condé Nast paid its interns a $550 stipend.

But a former intern tells us that’s no longer the case. She asked for the stipend she was owed after working there this Spring, only to be informed that the company had discontinued the stipends earlier this year.

Eight current and former interns at other Condé magazines tell us that they are also not receiving stipends.

For further evidence, the Tumblr links to listings for unpaid internships at the company. Time to lean in, AGAIN.

Wait a minute: Which is it? Interns stand around and do nothing and don't get any valuable experience? Or interns are doing actual work that employees do, giving them training that will help them get a job? People are arguing both. But if they're standing around doing nothing, they don't deserve to get paid. And if they're learning how to do the work that will help them secure the job to which they aspire, then there is value in the experience, as with the apprenticeship model with which some people are attempting to contrast these internships. In my experience, interns are doing actual work and getting training, but at nowhere near the level of being able to operate on their own. Their work typically requires a lot of oversight and checking.

That’s fair. But you understand how this is worse, right? Gawker had unpaid interns, then decided to pay them an hourly wage. Conde paid their interns less than $1 per hour — not to contribute editorial under their own byline, but to work onsite organizing, editing, fetching, on the behalf of others — and now pay them $0 per hour.

Look, the lawsuit against Gawker made headlines in June — that's just two months ago, and Gawker since then has had how many articles about publications that don't pay their interns? My issue is that it's Bullshit Journalism where Gawker does this without even a sentence noting the suit and pretending it's just on a crusade on behalf of journalism interns everywhere. It changes the whole way you see these stories when you know about this suit.